A screengrab from the now-viral WMBB news footage showing Clay Duke moments before he opened fire on members of a Florida school board.

The chilling video of a gunman opening fire at a school board meeting in Florida has gone viral, lighting up websites and being broadcast on news stations across the nation.

It has also given pause to public officials everywhere.

Nutley police Lt. Steven Rogers, who serves on the township’s board of education, said he saw the video of the incident and found it "disturbing," but admired the actions of the Florida schools superintendent and board.

"You cannot predict and prepare for random acts of violence," Rogers said. "We cannot give lessons on this. The individual has to assess the situation he or she is in. As a team, that school board behaved appropriately, some heroically, and did an outstanding job."

Clay A. Duke, 56, complained about taxes and his wife being fired from her teaching job before shooting at close range Tuesday at the school superintendent in Panama City, Fla., as others dived for cover. Duke fatally shot himself after exchanging gunfire with a security guard who wounded him. No one else was injured.

School districts around New Jersey and Pennsylvania are now questioning their own security protocols to prevent a similar incident.

"We are in the process of evaluating our security efforts and how we can redouble them," said Vernon Pullins Jr., president of the East Orange Board of Education. "We are making sure that electronic devices," such as metal detectors, "are up to par, that people who are not staff sign into buildings, and that both public meetings and private facilities are protected."

Before the Florida incident occurred, East Orange Schools Superintendent Gloria Scott had already planned to meet with the city’s police director to discuss upping security in the district’s schools, Pullins said. Now, he added, those meetings have taken on new importance.

School officials and board members have to make tough choices, Bolandi said. "If you do your job and you do it right and you care about kids, many times you make decisions that anger people."

Although Bolandi said he feels safe at board meetings, the shooting incident in Florida has put the district on alert. "Our awareness will be heightened," Bolandi said. "Copy-cat situations happen all the time."

Brian Smith, who has served on the Belvidere School Board in Warren County for 11 years, said it’s the price paid in a free society.

"It’s senseless and it’s insane — and there’s nothing you can do about it," he said. "You can’t stop someone who is irrational from entering a public meeting. I don’t think there’s a way to stop it unless you turn your public meetings into secure settings like you have at courthouses."

Being argumentative or upset is one thing, Smith said.

"You just try and be reasonable with them and talk to them and hopefully they calm down," Smith said. "But you can’t stop a shooter. He already made up his mind he was going to do something."

In the Phillipsburg School District, officials have cut about 100 jobs in the last two years — hard choices that have a serious effect on people, said school board President Kevin DeGerolamo.

He never imagined anything like what happened in Florida. Until now.

"You never think about something like that happening until you see it," said DeGerolamo, who has been on the board for seven years. "It’s scary.

"I don’t think there will be any knee-jerk reactions about how we conduct business, but it’s something you keep in the back of your mind."

In Bethlehem, Pa., school board President Loretta Leeson said years ago security personnel would walk board members to their cars after contentious meetings.

The concern was more for taking verbal abuse than physical violence, she said.

"I have never felt the fear of a physical assault from anyone in our community," said Leeson, a board member for 12 years. "Certainly, people have had differences of opinion. This is a pretty wonderful community and people have been able to express their feelings as opposed to acting it out."